THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE BELIEVER TODAY

By ALFRED NORRIS

PREFACE

This essay originated in discussions, in Newfoundland, with brethren and sisters who, while anxious to resist the excesses of modern Pentecostalism, nevertheless desired to do full justice to the teaching of the Scriptures on the Holy Spirit to-day. Notes were prepared on the spot which were adjudged very helpful, and what is now offered is a development from these.

It is impossible to approach the subject without realising how close its very consideration brings us to the presence of Him that is holy. The pressing duty to expound the subject is not made easier by the knowledge of one's unworthiness to do so. Mistakes and inadvertences which any one author might make have, however, been as far as possible eliminated by long and searching, but always kindly, examination by others over many months. The document has been weighed sentence by sentence, and though the responsibility for it is still my own, in many places the hands of others have left their mark.

Here and there differing views were expressed in our discussions on the meaning of isolated verses, as was perhaps inevitable. What is gratifying in spite of this is that we were very much at one in our understanding of the subject as a whole, and of nearly all the Scripture-evidence adduced.

It is now my hope and prayer that the essay may help towards an enlarged understanding of this exalted theme, and that what the mind has grasped the heart may take hold of, that we all, "being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” (Eph.3:17)


North Cave, October 1974
Alfred Norris

Published by the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association, 404 Shaftmoor Lane, Birmingham, B28 8SZ, England.

THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

Attitudes to the activity of God's Holy Spirit vary enormously. At the one extreme are those broadly labelled "Pentecostal", who believe that the gifts which descended on the apostles a few days after the ascension of the Lord Jesus, and were shortly afterwards bestowed on other believers, continued to be available throughout the centuries, and are to be expected and desired today. The whole range of such gifts is in principle to be expected, including tongues, prophecy, interpretations, healings, and even the raising of the dead. The first of these is the most obvious characteristic of Pentecostal movements, and while the language employed may sometimes, it is claimed, be a real foreign tongue otherwise unknown to the speaker, it is more usually an ecstatic utterance, a "tongue of angels", corresponding to no known language, but nevertheless capable of interpretation by one having that gift to provide an edifying message for the congregation. In addition to tongues, healings are very commonly claimed, though raising from the dead very rarely indeed.

(Acts 2 : 1-12, 43; 6 : 8; 8 : 5-24; 10 : 44-48; 11 : 17; 14:3;

19 : 1-7; 1 Corinthians 12 : 1-11; 14 : 1-40; 13 : 1)

Next to these are others who, either denying or indifferent to these miraculous manifestations, are still confident that the Holy Spirit speaks to the heart and mind of the believer today, giving a genuine revelation of the will and purpose of God. Some would regard all believers as so guided by the Holy Spirit as to be assured of the Tightness of their views, safeguarded from false teaching, protected against loss of faith, and independent of any need to appeal to the written witness of the Bible, the Word of God: though this latter is more often implied than categorically stated. Others, while claiming less for the individual, would claim more for the church to which he belongs, or for its priests and ministers, whose ordination or call is supposed to convey the grace of divine guidance by the Spirit for the teaching and care of their flocks. Here, too, this guidance by the Holy Spirit could make it superfluous to reason from what is written in the Word of God.1

1The Society of Friends would claim this inner light for all believers; communities believing in the sacrament of Holy Orders, and others too, are likely to claim it in various degrees for their priests and ministers.

Further along the scale would be those who, while recognizing that the Bible is the only court of appeal at which doctrine, instruction, and moral precepts are to be established, hold that the Bible itself promises help from God's Holy Spirit to the believer in living his life, meeting his temptations, and working out his salvation. These would regard the evidently miraculous gifts as past, at least for the time being, and would add that they are in any case irrelevant to salvation. But they would say that to deny God's power and will to work in the life of every believer in every age by His Spirit could lead to the assertion that man can save himself if only he knows enough. It would lie within the believer's power, having understood what God has revealed, to live his life in the light of that knowledge alone, and bring it to a successful issue. Such a view, they would claim, is entirely out of accord with the Bible's own revelation of the mediation of the risen Christ and the facts of Christian worship.

(Philippians 2 : 12; Romans 8 : 31-34; Ephesians 3 : 14-21)

Finally, there may be some who mistrust all claims ot possess the Spirit's gifts, or be subject to the Spirit's guidance or help, and have come to the conclusion that the only safe course is to claim the sole sufficiency of the Bible, without acknowledging any power from above which could, as they would put it, come between the believer and his unrestricted reliance on the written Word of God. These would then claim that the Holy Spirit simply does not now operate otherwise than through his Word. The believer has his Bible, and needs nothing else to enable him secure the blessing at his Lord's return.2

2It is extremely doubtful whether, in practice, any Bible-believer does go as far as this. If answers to faithful prayer are conceded, this position breaks down.

OUR TREATMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The method adopted here is simple. In principle, what we are doing is to ask the Bible what is the truth of the matter. If it proves that the Bible offers us the power to speak with tongues and work other miracles today, then these powers are available. If the Bible is found to promise every believer, or his church, inspired understanding of God's truth without further recourse to its pages for confirmation, then that is the truth of the matter. If the Bible tells us that truth can be

found only by studying its pages, but that this truth can only be worked out with the help of God's Holy Spirit if it is to be effective, then for the help of that Spirit we must seek. Finally, if it should tell us that the Book itself is all we can expect or have, we must be happily content with that. (Isaiah 8 : 20; John 5:39; 2 Timothy 3 : 14-17)

Of one thing we must beware. Our own feelings, whether we are predisposed to view with enthusiasm wielding the miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit, or whether we are inclined to suspect and resent such aspirations, must not usurp a calm enquiry into the teaching of the Word of God itself. We must neither demand more than God offers, nor reject what He does: to do either would be to make void the Word of God by our traditions.

(Matthew 15 : 3, 6; Mark 7 : 13)

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Though it might not always be put in these terms, it is clear that when men of God wrought miracles (as Moses, Elijah, and Elisha), it was the Spirit of God which gave this power to them. Though the prophets, when they spoke messages from God, said "The word of the Lord came unto me", and the like, the New Testament tells us how this came about by stating: "Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." Words to the same effect are sometimes used by the prophets themselves, as when Moses tells us that "the spirit of God came upon" Balaam, or when David says, "The spirit of the Lord spoke by me". But apart from the special powers conveyed by the Spirit of God to special men it is clear that the people as a whole had to await such revelations, and profit from them as they received them from prophets and lawgivers, having no such inspiration of their own.

(Exodus 4 : 1-7, and chapters 5 onwards; 1 Kings 17 : 16-24,

etc.; Jeremiah 1 : 2, 4, 7, 11, etc.; 2 Peter 1 : 19-21; Numbers

24:2; 2 Samuel 23 : 2)

There are also some indications of a quieter manifestation of the Spirit in assisting the personal lives of men of God. When king Saul ceased to seek God's ways, and the Spirit of God departed from him, to be replaced by "an evil spirit from the Lord", a man who had been helped to rule well was given over to the workings of his rebellious mind because he revolted from under God's hand; and when David in his remorse pleads that God will not take away His Holy Spirit from him, but will uphold him with a willing spirit, he is not asking for inspiration to speak or write oracles from God, but for renewed fellowship with God, to create in him a clean heart and strengthen him in righteous ways. (1 Samuel 16 : 14; Psalm 51 : 10-17)

THE MIRACULOUS MANIFESTATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

This begins with the power granted to the aged Elizabeth to bear a child (after a pattern which had already occurred several times in the Old Testament), a power continued in her son John, who was to be "filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb". It reaches a vastly higher level when God grants a child to Mary, Himself being the Father of the child. When Jesus was fully grown, He could claim the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me", a fact revealed in all He spoke and did. He is marked out from all the former prophets by the fact that God "gave not the Spirit by measure" to Him: they must wait until they were moved by the Spirit before, "at sundry times and in divers manners", they could truly speak in God's name; but the message from God was constantly on Jesus' lips, so that He spoke with an authority which never failed. The power of God was ever with Him, so that virtue could go out from Him to work healings such as had never been seen before.

(Luke 1 : 5-23, 26-38; 4 : 17-19; Isaiah 61 : 1-2; John 3 : 34;

Hebrews 1:1-2; John 10:25, 38; 15:24; Luke 6:19;

8:46)

Even before He died the Lord gave some power to heal to His disciples, who were able to take tours of duty, their signs bearing powerful witness to the grace of God. Yet they must await His death, resurrection, and ascension before the fullness of such powers could be granted them. "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

(Matthew 10 : 8; Mark 16 : 15-18; John 1: 39; 14 : 12)

The apostles must, the Lord said, "wait at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high". The Holy Spirit (sometimes called Parakletos, "the Comforter", conveying the thought of a Helper by one's side), was to lead them into all truth, bringing to their remembrance all that the Lord had said to them. On the Day of Pentecost the sound of the rushing mighty wind announced the descent of the heavenly powers upon them. By these powers they could speak with other tongues and prophesy. They could heal the sick and even raise the dead. Those of them whose writings have come down to us joined the inspired men of the Old Testament in writing "the commandments of the Lord" under the guidance of His Spirit, so that these writings, too, came to be known as Scripture.

(Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49; John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7;

Acts 2: Iff.; 21:10; 3:1-10; 9:36-43; 1 Corinthians

14: 37; 2 Peter 3: 15-16)

The miraculous gifts were for a time more abundant than (save in the case of the Lord Jesus alone) they had ever been before. Peter described the event as a fulfilment of the prophecy that God would "pour out his Spirit on all flesh", so that "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams". As a result numerous people, named and unnamed, are found able to exercise one or more of the gifts. Apart from the prophetic and miraculous powers of the pre-eminent Peter and Paul, we have, for example, the Spirit-guided preaching and miracles of Stephen in Jerusalem, and Philip the evangelist in Samaria. Philip's four daughters are prophetesses, and there is a body of prophets at Antioch. Agabus is a prophet who by the Spirit predicts a famine, and also the arrest of the apostle Paul. Paul writes of the Lord's ascension as resulting in His "giving gifts to men", in providing and endowing apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. He recognizes as operations of one and the same Spirit the words of wisdom and knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecy, tongues and their interpretation, and lays down guidelines for their profitable use. In the recorded experience of the earliest Christian community much of the promise to the apostles was fulfilled: "These signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall in no wise hurt them." (Acts 2 : 14-21; Joel 2 : 28-32; Acts 6 : 8-10; 8 : 4-13; 21 : 9-11; Ephesians 4 : 7-13; 1 Corinthians 12-14; Mark 16 : 18)

THE LIMITATIONS OF THE MIRACULOUS GIFTS

All the same, granted the widespread existence of these powers, we must not go beyond the New Testament's own picture of the situation. Thus the miraculous outpouring at Pentecost came on the apostolic company, but not on their audience, who were amazed at what they saw and heard. Even when three thousand accepted the call to repent and be baptized, on the promise that they would "receive the gift of the Holy Spirit", it is not said that they received any miraculous powers, for immediately afterwards we are told that "many wonders and signs were done by the apostles" while the multitude experienced "great grace". When seven believers "full of the Spirit and of wisdom" are selected for a special duty, no miraculous works are attributed to them until the apostles lay their hands on them and appoint them to do their duties: after which Stephen and Philip, at least, are able to command attention by the wonders they work. When Philip exercises his powers in Samaria, no powers are conferred on those whom he converts until Peter and John arrive, when their prayers cause gifts, but not the right to transmit the gifts, to fall on converts there.